Question

Robert

Robert, age 58, is delighted to be planning and approaching retirement from his private insurance company. His son Ben (age 29) will take over the business and works with him full time. They live in a small town and there is no private gym, but they have a membership for a small fee to use the high school weight room and they go regularly twice a week from 6 to 7 a.m. Robert is being seen in your clinic for his regular insurance physical.

            Robert hates getting up early to work out because he misses the morning paper and breakfast, but he does so at Ben’s insistence. In the facility, there is a full set of dumbbells, and a multi-gym (each plate = 10 pounds). Robert does two sets of 12 reps twice a week of the following: seated lat pull down (4 plates), bicep curls (15 lb. dumbbells), seated military press (4 plates), and seated leg press (8 plates). He does not know exactly what the weights are, but he knows the number of plates he uses. He then does 25 sit-ups, spends 15 minutes in the wet sauna, showers and shaves, changes, and leaves for work. He reports he “has it down to a system.”

            Ben skips the sauna and works out during that time; because he shaves at home, he showers faster than his dad. Ben is on two different men’s softball or basketball leagues, depending on the season, and he plays or practices 4 days per week. Father and son have coffee and pastry at the office on the 2 days they work out together. Robert smiles and calls it his “reward.”

Critical Thinking Questions

1.      Analyze Robert’s program. What does he target and what is he missing?

2.      How should he progress?

3.      What exercises should he add?

4.      How can you determine the intensity or quantify his workout?

Answer 1

1a. What does he target and what is he missing -

targeted muscles: 1. Seated lat pull down - target back muscles particularly the latissimus dorsi 2. Bicep curl - target bicep muscles ( biceps brachii ) 3. Seated military press - target your shoulder muscles (deltoids) mainly your anterior deltoids 4. Seated leg press - target your leg muscles primarily your quadriceps and hamstrings, you also use your glutes and calves but as stabilizer muscles 5. 25 sit-ups again hits your leg muscles

1b. What is he missing -

he is missing out on his chest & triceps muscles

2. how should he progress -

he can progress by applying the method of progressive overload. Progressive overload requires a gradual increase in volume, intensity, frequency or time. For example he can increase the weight gradually or increase the number of sets.

3 what exercise should he add ?

he should add push exercises like bench press and tricep Push down for chest and triceps respectively.

he can also interchange dumbbell row with seated lat pull down for a better back development

4. How can you determine the intensity or quantify his workout.

We can quantify his workout by using percentage of one repetition maximum workloads, many sports conditioning workout s are based on a percentage of one rep max, particularly heavy lifts such as bench press, squat, shoulder presses , deadlifts

Example :

bench press

1 RM = 200 lbs

80% 1RM = 160lbs

warm-up weight can simply be calculated by taking 50% of workout weight. In this case 80lbs. now , lets look at an exercise that utilises bodyweight, in addition to added weight in the form of a dumbbell between ankles or hanging from a dip belt around waist. To calculate 80% 1RM we must know bodyweight : weighted pull-up

1RM = 50 lbs (dumbbell)

bodyweight = 200lbs

1RM (actual resistance) = 200 + 50 + 250 lbs

80% 1RM (actual resistance ) = 200 lbs

dumbbell weight = 80% 1RM - body weight = 0 lb

since the workload is same as the bodyweight, no additional resistance is required. If the new actual resistance were to exceed the bodyweight , the new added weight can be calculated by subtracting the bodyweight from the actual resistance required. If the bodyweight exceeded the new actual resistance, an assisted pull-up machine can be used